Kathleen McLaughlin has been a journalist in China for more than seven years and has covered regional issues including economics, the environment and governmental regulation. Recently she applied for a foreign journalist’s permit to visit Tibet and was granted permission to do so. She is one of the first foreign journalists since March 2008 allowed to travel independently to Tibet, although regulations still require hiring a government-approved guide. During her week-long trip, she is sending dispatches from Lhasa for the Far Eastern Economic Review:
After only a few hours in Lhasa, one thing is crystal clear: Four months after the riots and subsequent crackdown, controls may be easing somewhat but this remains a very tightly controlled city under intense guard by Chinese military and police.
Uniformed soldiers and police stand watch in pairs and trios at most major intersections throughout the Barkhor district, a ring around the Jokhang Temple – one of the most sacred places in Tibetan Buddhism. As the faithful masses walk praying in a clockwise-turning throng around the temple they barely notice the guards and the police and soldiers pay little attention to the crowd. There is no visible aggression or animosity between the Tibetans and Chinese security forces. Life appears to be slowly getting back to some form of normal.
Chinese tour groups are in evidence, as are a handful of Western tourists. One of the few foreign aid workers who has remained in Lhasa throughout the chaos of 2008 said the city finally is regaining a sense of normalcy, despite the continued police and military presence. Still there is much talk in hushed tones of Chinese repercussions against Tibetans involved in the riots, and the need for extreme caution. In other words, things are calmed but not healed.
